Trailblazers in Edtech: Johnjoe Farragher

The Tech Edvocate is pleased to produce its “Trailblazers of Edtech” series. This series profiles the top edtech influencers in the world. To create this series, The Tech Edvocate editorial team exhaustively researched the movers and shakers of edtech. To frame our methodology, we decided to define the term “edtech influencer” broadly. In this series, you will find administrators, bloggers, journalists, policymakers, researchers, innovators, businessmen, activists, etc. who are transforming the edtech space as we know it.

The influencers that we chose are all active in the area of edtech, doing something influential in edtech, well-known throughout the edtech landscape, and making an impact globally. We are excited to witness how these influencers continue to change the world this year, and we are anxious to see who will stand on the shoulders of these giants, and as a result, become a part of this series. In this installment of “Trailblazers in Edtech,” we will profile Johnjoe Farragher, CEO of Defined Learning.

What His Current Focus Is: As the CEO of Defined Learning, it is Farragher’s goal to build and maintain strong customer relationships and provide thought leadership in identifying best practices that provide educators with the best possible experience. Through Defined STEM, a product of Defined Learning, students can engage in project-based learning (PBL) and use what they know to solve real-world problems. The curriculum is aimed to save educators time when creating unique and relevant project-based lessons, while also opening students’ eyes to a variety of STEM careers.

How He’s Transforming the EdTech: With his Defined STEM curriculum, Farragher saves teachers time and makes PBL easy to implement by providing pre-built, project-based performance tasks complete with research resources. To help educators effectively implement PBL in their classrooms, Farragher added Performance Task PD, a professional development community.

What His Background Is: With 20 years in educational media, Farragher has used creative marketing campaigns to make Defined Learning a success. He started in education as a salesman for United Learning. From 1992–2009, he was Senior VP of strategy and business development for Discovery Education. Farragher’s vision led to the development of the widely adopted United Streaming. He started Defined Learning in 2009, which has grown to partner with thousands of schools.

What May Surprise You About Him: A Chicago native, Farragher is an avid sports fan and enjoys cheering for the Bears, the Cubs, and the Blackhawks.

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About Us

Since technology is not going anywhere and does more good than harm, adapting is the best course of action. That is where The Tech Edvocate comes in. We plan to cover the P-20 EdTech sector and provide our readers with the latest news and opinion on the subject. From time to time, I will invite other voices to weigh in on important issues in EdTech. We hope to provide a well-rounded, multi-faceted look at the past, present, the future of EdTech in the US and internationally.

We started this journey back in June 2016, and we plan to continue it for many more years to come. I hope that you will join us in this discussion of the past, present and future of EdTech and lend your own insight to the issues that are discussed.

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